Sen. Murray and Rep. Ryan: Rival budgets, roaring differences

The federal budget proposals championed by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the Republicans’ 2012 vice presidential nominee, are so far apart that the idea of a “grand bargain” seems like a dream, with more siege warfare in Washington, D.C., the reality.

Rep. Paul Ryan: Undaunted by 2012 defeat, he proposes budget that would partially privatize Medicare, turn Medicaid and food stamps into block grants, cut tax rates for the rich, repeal Wall Street reform, and throw open federal land to drilling and mining.nll

Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, rolled out his new budget on Tuesday, a document reminiscent of his old budget that Democrats ran against in the 2012 election.

It would partially privatize Medicare, slash Medicaid and food stamps by turning them into block grants, abolish the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), roll back the 2010 Wall Street reform legislation, and throw open federal lands in all places to all kinds of drilling and gouging proposed by Big Oil and Big Coal. It would cut planned spending by $4.6 trillion over 10 years.

By contrast, as chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Murray wants to cut the deficit by $1.9 trillion in the next decade, with $975 billion in cuts to planned spending, and nearly $1 trillion in new tax revenues. Murray is planning $275 billion in health care savings. Ryan would cut $129 billion from Medicare, and $756 from Medicaid and other health care.

“While House Republicans are doubling down on the extreme budget that the American people already rejected, Senate Democrats are going to be working on a responsible budget that puts jobs and the economy first and reflects the values and priorities of middle-class families across the country,” said Murray.

The Senate Budget Committee’s Democratic proposal will be unveiled in detail Wednesday.

Ryan has stuck to his guns despite last November’s election defeat. “The election didn’t go our way,” he said Tuesday. “Believe me, I know what that feels like. So that means we surrender our principles? That means we stop believing in what we believe in? We think we owe the country a balanced budget. We think we owe the country solutions to the big problems that are plaguing our nation.”

Does Ryan really think President Obama would agree to repeal of the Affordable Care Act? “We will never be able to balance the budget if you keep Obamacare going, because Obamacare is a fiscal train wreck,” he said Tuesday.

Sen. Patty Murray, chair of the Senate Budget Committee. She proposes to balance $1.9 trillion in deficit reduction in next decade, half in cuts to projected spending, half in new revenue. Budget would include $100 to retrain workers, repair roads and bridges.

While slashing Medicaid and food stamps, Ryan’s budget would be most generous to upper-income Americans. It does eliminate a number of tax breaks, but cuts the top income tax rate that wealthy Americans pay from 39.6 percent down to 25 percent.

The Ryan plan drew a stinging rejoinder from Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., long a Democratic deficit “hawk” and ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

“By taking an all-cuts approach to deficit reduction, the Ryan budget burdens seniors with cuts to health benefits, deeply cuts essential programs for millions of under-served families, and limits national growth by undermining the investment to our national priorities,” Smith said.

The budget offered by Murray goes in the opposite direction of Ryan’s.

While making cuts, it would create a $100 billion “targeted economic recovery plan,” targeted to repairing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure (including its roads and bridges) and retraining workers who lost jobs in the Great Recession. “This is fully paid for by eliminating loopholes and cutting wasteful spending in the tax code that benefits the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations,” said a Murray briefing paper.

The U.S. Treasury’s projected deficit for the next decade has already been cut by $2.4 trillion, the latest and most painful cuts coming through budget sequestration.

With $1.9 trillion in deficit reduction — a combination of savings and new revenue — Murray’s budget aims at hitting the $4 trillion goal set by the bipartisan panel headed by former Wyoming Republican Sen. Alan Simpson and ex-White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles.

Murray chaired the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee in 2012. Not only did President Obama win re-election, but Democrats unexpectedly picked up Senate seats in a year when 23 Democrat-held Senate seats were being contested.

The Senate’s ruling Democrats see, in the election returns, a rejection of Ryan’s budget ideas and a repudiation of the meat-axe approach of the Tea Party movement.

But Ryan is not retreating. Helped by gerrymandered district boundaries, Republicans still hold a House majority and are a confrontational rather than compromising lot.